Settings to Use Camera as Negative Scanner

Steve240

• April 19, 2019 14:01

I've been using my Sony A7II as a negative scanner -- ie using a negative carrier and macro lens to photograph 35mm and 6x6 negatives and produce digital images.

This is capable of producing a very high quality scan. But, needless to say these are images of negatives, which means that they are inverted. In Lightroom, that means that all controls work backwards, which can be quite confusing. There is a plug-in for Lightroom that helps turn a color negative into a positive. I haven't tried it yet, but I gather that it helps.

I'm wondering what you all would suggest as a workflow in Capture One. Is there a way to invert the image and then treat it as a positive?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

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  C-M-B

  • April 19, 2019 18:27

  You can flip the curve upside down and you can do the same with the levels.

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  Steve240

  • April 19, 2019 19:41

  Thanks. That was more or less what I thought.
  
  Do you know if Capture One can directly control a Sony A7II, or do I have to use the Sony software?
  
  Thanks again --

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  cdc

  • April 19, 2019 22:09

  You can swap the black and white point on either the curve or the levels tool but the other adjustments will work reversed or based off of the original negative image. If I remember correctly auto levels set to the R, G, & B channels still works and is sometimes helpful with color casts. The only way to get everything to work normal would be to invert the image then create a tiff and work on that, then of course you'll loose some of the advantages of editing a raw file.
  
  Capture One Cultural Heritage edition is able to invert and has several tools specific negative scanning, however its price tag is quite prohibitive.

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  Gert Engman

  • April 20, 2019 08:58

  I use ColorPerfect, works very well
  https://www.colorperfect.com/colorperfect.html?lang=en

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